Hi All! Between the Philharmonic at Lincoln Center and Spring Awakening on Broadway, I hope you had a terrific first week back from Thanksgiving break!

This semester I’ve been taking an amazing class at NYU called Brazilian Music and Globalization. I absolutely love it. I couldn’t have chosen a better course here at NYU or back at Duke.

As far as our NYU courses go, we’ve all had different experiences. It was tough signing up for courses–it would be nice if we had an NYU advisor assigned to our Duke group to help us out. Even still, with perseverance, many diverse and different courses were available to us.

Here’s a brief profile of my NYU class (and please please please make sure to check out some of the Brazilian tune’s I’ve posted. They’re awesome.):

My class is cross-listed in the Music, Africana Studies, and Spanish and Portuguese Departments of the NYU College of Arts and Sciences. Professor Jason Stanyek teaches the course–he’s an expert in Brazilian music, has taught extensively on the subject, has lived in Brazil for many years in the past, and plays many of the instruments we discuss in class. He’s also extremely enthusiastic and engaging as a lecturer. His bi-weekly lectures are consistently well-organized and interesting, incorporating much audio and video. About fifty students take the course, but Professor Stanyek and his two TA’s make themselves available and accessible.

Brazilian music is, above all, DIVERSE. Over the course of the semester, we’ve studied in depth the music of capoeira, Rio’s Carnival samba, bossa nova, pagode, tropicalia, the music of candomble and umbanda, and samba reggae. This is only a sampling of Brazil’s music–we’ve also touched on many other styles and movements. Popular music holds an exalted position in Brazil and is connected to complex issues of racial identity, authenticity and Brasilidade (Brazilianness), and internationalization.

In the sidebar, you’ll find some cool samples of the many many many Brazilian tracks I’ve listened to this semester. If you want more info, ASK ME!!! I love talking about this stuff.

6 responses to “NYU Course: Brazilian Music and Globalization”

hi, thanks for posting this. i’m a student at nyu and am really interested in taking the course. can you tell me what the courseload is like, in terms of papers/length/frequency and such? (that would be the only setback, since i’m taking mostly writing intensive classes next semester).

hi, thanks for posting this. i’m a student at nyu and am really interested in taking the course. can you tell me what the courseload is like, in terms of papers/length/frequency and such? (that would be the only setback, since i’m taking mostly writing intensive classes next semester).

hi, thanks for posting this. i’m a student at nyu and am really interested in taking the course. can you tell me what the courseload is like, in terms of papers/length/frequency and such? (that would be the only setback, since i’m taking mostly writing intensive classes next semester).